Thanatos Rising
by Mortanius
Summary: A story about humanities darkest hour. story being revised to meet suggestions more to come
1. Prolog

Thanatos Rising

Prolog

In the year 2008 the world was a very troubled place; wars, famine, pollution, and terrorism was rife throughout much the world. The problems were numerous, and the fear that the world would end in a cataclysmic nuclear war worried many. However, they were wrong, civilization would not end with a bang or even a whimper, rather, it would end with screaming and the sounds of chewing and ripping. Our would destroyed and ripped asunder not by World War Three, but with a single virus, a virus so rare, powerful and deadly that it killed and eventually reanimated billions of people. This virus would be called the Thanatos Virus. Thanatos worked by reproducing itself in the brain, blood, saliva and other bodily fluids, eventually killing its host due to the viruses extraordinarily high toxicity. Thanatos then took control of the lower portions of the brain, and reanimated the person, making the host transmit the virus through bites, scratches, and contact with bodily fluids in open wounds, the process then began once again in another host. This virus had occurred before and our ancestors had tried to warn us about the existence of this virus, the last time there was an outbreak of this virus it was in what would be known as present day Guatemala, it had happed 1100 years before, and it had wiped out the Mayan civilization. The only reason it had not spread throughout the world was the fact that they populations were small and spread far apart, and that jungles of Guatemala caused the rapid decay of the host, therefore inhibiting its spread. They tried to warn us through their writings but we did not understand or listen. However, this virus would again appear in Guatemala and this time there were more people, and transportation was very easy.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It Begins

Guatemala was once a nation which was home to millions of people, today it is mostly uninhabited. The jungles have for most part reclaimed the numerous hamlets and small towns, its vines and trees now growing in the middle of what were at one time busy streets, those houses and businesses still standing, now houses animals and various insects instead of people. The cities that were not reclaimed by nature have mostly become hulking burned out and rapidly decaying ruins, which serve as a true testament to the destructive power of the Thanatos virus. Even though the last zombie was destroyed thirteen years ago many, people still regard the whole country to be a cursed area and are reluctant to move back in. The reason for this was that it was from Guatemala, that the Thanatos virus was born.

If one travels south from the former Mexican border one will find what remains of the ruins of a town by the name of Soloma, it was here that that a poor farmer by the name of Jose Santos first contracted the Thanatos virus causing a plague and horror which came close to destroying mankind. The virus itself seemed like a very bad flu, it started with shakes and joint pains followed by stomach and muscle pain, soon the victim spiked a high fever reaching between 105 and 107 degrees before the patient went into a coma, followed by death. However, it would be after death that the Thanatos Virus truly showed how deadly it really was.

February 6th 2008 Soloma Guatemala

Maria Santos was panicking as she entered the large town of Soloma. She was the poor wife of peasant farmer, and the mother of five children. The reason Maria was panicking was because her husband was sick, while this would normally not panic her. Maria was well in demand in her village as a midwife, and as a person who knew how to make and administer herbal medications for people who could ill afford the doctors trip into town. She had survived the uprisings of the 1980's, and had on more than one occasion faced danger. However, this time was different as she headed towards town, she reflected on the events of the last two days. It had been two days before that her husband had come in early from a hunting trip into the forest claiming he had been attacked by some kind of animal he had never seen before, he said it was some kind of small monkey like creature, that smelled and looked as though it had come from hell itself. Maria had looked at the wounds, and found that he had bitten on the shoulder. She had applied an herbal paste she had created and had told him to lie down. Yesterday, he had woken up complaining of muscle and joint pain, along with stomach cramps. Last night the cramps got worse, and he had developed a very high fever. When she had stood over him it had felt like being over a fire pit. That morning he began to babble incoherently, and had vomited blood. Therefore she had ordered her oldest daughter to watch her brothers and sisters, while she took their father to the doctor.

By the time Maria pulled the cart up to the free medical clinic run by the Red Cross in Soloma. Her husband had fallen into unconsciousness the nurse seeing Maria arrive immediately came out of the clinic, and ordered her to help him into the doctor's office. A few seconds latter a doctor by the name of Carlos Diego, came into the room. After looking at the patient he asked, "What is the name of the patient."

Maria responded, "Jose Santos."

Doctor Diego began taking the patients pulse and temperature, he then asked, "When did the patient begin exhibiting these symptoms?"

Maria responded, "Two days ago."

The doctor then asked "What happened?" As Maria told her story the doctor began looking at the read out of the patient's temperature and pulse, and what he saw concerned him greatly. His temperature was hovering at 106, and his pulse was plummeting.

He suddenly called the nurse into the room "Julia, I need you to get ice in the room and antibiotics fast this man is burning up."

Maria's eyes began to water and her lips began to quiver, Dr Diego said to Maria, "It would be best if you went out to the waiting room right now." Looking at the nurse, he then said, "Julia lead her to the waiting room and have the receptionist get her something to drink, then get back in here"

As Maria left the room she noticed that her husband was violently shaking, and the doctor was injecting something into her husband. Maria was lead to a small reception area filled with people, she recognized a couple that lived a few miles away from her, and sat down next to then to tell what happened to her husband.

Dr Carlos Diego was 29 and from San Antonio Texas. He had moved to Soloma six months ago in order to hone in his medical skills and to contribute back to society. Originally from Guatemala his parents immigrated to the United States when he was ten. He knew these people were poor, and lacked medical care. He also knew Guatemala was despite for doctors, that is why he choose to come to Soloma through the Red Cross for one year, to help out his former countrymen. Already he had seen some pretty serious injuries, including one farmer who had been thrown from a horse and had broken every bone in his both his legs. However, the patient he was now working on was something new he had not seen before. He noticed the bite on his shoulder and saw that it was massively infected and appeared to be rotting and that the veins and arteries leading from the wound were turning black. The skin around the wound had turned a grayish black color he would have to operate if there was any hope of saving this man. He was also puzzled Maria said he had been bitten two days ago yet this bite looked like it had been there for longtime an infection of this magnitude rarely, if ever spread as rapidly as it had on Jose Santos. When he looked at the eyes, they were blood shot and had some sort of transparent film forming on the surface. His breathing was coming in very rapid short bursts, he injected some morphine into the patient, but it did not appear to work on the patient. Just then the patient hitched in one big breath and then slowly exhaled it, he then stopped breathing Dr Diego shouted at Julia "Get the heart defibulator in her now"

He had started mouth to mouth when Julia came into the room with the portable heart defibulator. He charged then up and applied it to his chest; he jerked up but still did not breathe. After three minutes of this he gave up, he said to Julia,

"I am calling it the time of death is 12:31 pm."

He covered the late Jose Santos, and went out towards the reception area to break the bad news to Maria.

When Maria heard the news she gave out a blood curdling wail of abject despair and broke down in sobs. The wife of the couple she had been sitting with knelt down besides her to comfort her. Dr Diego, stood there and said to Maria,

"I am sorry we did all we could."

She held back a sob and said, "I know you did, thank you."

She then said "Can I see my husband one last time."

Dr Diego said "Yes you may, Julia bring her back to see her husband."

As Julia, lead Maria to the back, he looked at his colleague an older man by the name of Doctor Alfonso Sanchez, and said can you take the next patient, I have to fill out paper work. The doctor nodded and went to a mother and her young child who had a very nasty ear infection.

After Julia left the room Maria looked down upon the dead face of her husband and broke down in tears again. She had loved him and he had given her five beautiful children, six if you counted the Angelia, who died when she was two of measles. She was worried about the future; she had five children to support, and a farm to keep up. While she was only fifty, she was still not a young woman any more. While she thinking of her bleak looking future she did not notice that her husband's fingers and toes had started to twitch. However, she did notice when his hand started to twitch. She backed off quickly in fright she then saw that he had opened his eyes, a sense of joy overcame her, he was alive the doctor was wrong, he was not dead. She came over to him and hugged him, as she bent down to kiss him he opened his mouth, when their lips connected instead of returning the kiss he bit her lips off.

Dr Diego was typing out the coroner's report when he heard a blood curdling scream of pain and terror. He ran out of his office and heard it again it, was coming from the room where Jose Santos was. As he burst into the roomed he say Maria Santos on the floor in a pool of blood, her lips and most of her right cheek had been torn away. At her neck eating away at it like a chicken dinner was Jose Santos.

Dr Diego, normally a man who did not swear said out loud, "What the fuck is this?"

Jose hearing him looked up with the blood smeared around his mouth and blood running down his neck. With catlike agility, he jumped up and before the doctor could react the creature tore out his throat. He fell taking the creature with him, he saw that the door had opened and Julia was there screaming in pure terror. Dr Diego, mouthed "Help me" to her. She picked up a tray and began hitting Jose, while she was doing this Maria resurrected, and noticed Julia she jumped on her back and bit down into her shoulder, in the process severing a major artery. Within two minutes, both Dr Diego and Julia were dead and five minutes later they rose. The four zombies then infected five more people in the next hour including Dr Sanchez. Thanatos had begun its reign of terror.

February 9th 2008, From an Article in Guatemala's main Newspaper page A 6

Police and the mayor of Soloma have reported the outbreak of gang related violence in Soloma. The violence seems to be centered around a Red Cross Medical Clinic in center of town. Local police reported ten dead, with forty wounded, as of right now they are reporting the situation to be contained.

February 10th 2008 (Late Afternoon) Soloma Guatemala

Sergeant Rodrigo Fernandez of the Soloma Police Department stood behind a barricade on Soloma's main street; in front of him one hundred rioters were heading his way, and were not heading his calls for them to halt. Sergeant Fernandez stopped to look at the rioters for a few seconds, these were not gang members, and in fact many of them looked to be professional workers and middle class people. He saw the new doctor from the United States was one of the rioters, as well as the head of the finance board; he even saw a police officer or two in the crowd. Many of the rioters had horrible wounds on their necks of faces or were missing limbs, he wondered if this was some kind of revolt or mass hysteria that had broken out. So far it seemed as though the riots were limited to Soloma, but he had heard that there was disturbances in a few villages outside of town. Regardless of what was happening, he was obliged to stop them, he had sworn an oath to the law and the nation of Guatemala and he intended to keep it to dying breath. Besides him were ten men, three of which were civilians that been deputized because the disturbances had grown so fast.

He turned towards his men, and stated "If the rioters get within twenty five yards of your position and do not halt, you have permission to shoot this comes directly from the governor of the state"

He then turned to the riots and ordered them to halt, they did not obey, instead they seemed to pick up speed. Once again he warned them to halt and disperse; again they just kept on coming. They were ten seconds away from being fired on Sergeant Fernandez, not wanting a bloodbath fired a shot on the ground in front of the riots hoping that would scare them off they once again paid no heed to Sergeant Fernandez's warning. The rioters crossed the dead line and Sergeant Fernandez gave the order to fire. A loud roar of gunfire erupted from the barricade most of the bullets hit their mark, but to the officer's and his men's horror only two of the rioters fell. The rest had horrible gunshot wounds to their chests and outer extremists, wounds that should have killed them, but yet they still were coming. The first of the rioters slammed into the barricade and began to attack his men, he stepped back in horror as they began rip apart his men He fired a few more shots at them hitting one right in the center of her chest, but she did not die instead she turned to attack him, he could see the destroyed remains of her lungs and heart, it was then he realized that this was something new, something no man had ever seen before. As he turned to run he was tackled by a man, and what looked to be a young child. He was able to get the man off him but the child was too quick for him, and bit down into the back of his neck. He pulled the child off him and threw the child against a brick wall, its head contacted with the brick wall and split open, the child finally laid still. As he turned to see if any of his men had managed to get away, he saw to his horror that all had been either bitten or killed. He collapsed on the ground the blood loss to great for him he got very tired and cold, and soon closed his eyes. Five minutes later he opened his eyes and slowly rose. He remembered little and felt nothing except one thing hunger. He shuffled over to an arm, which had been discarded into a gutter and bit down.

February 10th 2008, From AP News, Latin America bureau

Reports are still sketchy but it has been confirmed that there are widespread riots occurring in the Guatemalan town of Soloma, and surrounding villages. It is unknown at this time what the cause of the rioting is, or what groups are behind it. However, as of 8pm Eastern Standard Time (6pm local time) the president of Guatemalan has placed Soloma and surrounding areas under martial law, saying that "law and order will be restored to Soloma within the next two days." The president of Guatemala has also said that victims wounded by the rioting are being taken to hospitals to the nearby city of Huehuetenango Guatemala.

February 12th 2008 from Reuters

The rioting that began in Soloma, Guatemala, has now apparently spread to the city Huehuetenango, also in Guatemala. Army troops are now battling rioters in the down town district and reports are coming in that hundreds are dead and thousands are wounded. The president of Guatemala has declared all of Western and Northern Guatemala, under martial law, as reports of sporadic disturbances filter in from communities bordering Soloma and Huehuetenango. As of the filing of this report, refugees are beginning to flee the rioting torn areas and are beginning to show up in the capital and other urban centers. Refugee centers are being set up, and are expected to house thousands of Guatemalans by the end of the week. On a related note all contact has been lost with Soloma, Guatemala and it has been confirmed by satellite photographs that there are major fires raging through the town, and that large sections of the town are now in ruins. The President of the United States has no comments at this point but there are rumors of diplomatic and military talks between Washington and Guatemala City, more reports will follow as they become available.

February 12th 2008, Office of the President of Guatemala, Guatemala City

"What the hell is going on here" said the Carlos Menendez the current president of Guatemala roared to his senior military commander.

"One minute everything fine in Soloma and Huehuetenango, and the next minute there burning and rioting. What I want to know is who the hell is behind this, because I'll personally kill the bastard or bastards responsible for this mayhem."

The commander responded, "We don't know what happed, or why this is happening. This rioting came out of nowhere, and as for whose responsible, we don't know that either. No group or persons have come forward claiming responsibility, and the rioters appear to be spread across the entire social class system. There are even reports from some of our informants in the area that the mayor of Soloma is one of the rioters, along with almost the entire police department."

The president looked at his senior commander. "We need to stop these riots now, there are elections coming up and I want to win, not to mention I already have those gringo yanks breathing down my neck, if that wasn't enough we have some wacko's over in Military Intelligence are who claiming that the dead are rising, you'd think in twentieth century we could leave the ghost stories behind with the past particularly those in the intelligence department. Commander, I am counting on you to end these riots, do what you must, you are dismissed."

The commander walked out the door and closed the door. The president walked over to his desk and got out a bottle of tequila and poured some into the glass as he stared at the glass he put it aside and grabbed the bottle and took a swig from it. As he sat down he thought to himself,

"I really do not need this crap at my age, zombies, Ha, I have two cities burning and that's the best military intelligence can come with and they say all the insane people are locked up. When this is over, I will have to do some spring cleaning at military intelligence."

February 14th 2008 Washington DC, White House, Oval Office

President James Harper sat at his desk with a look of annoyance he was reading a report from the Secretary of State and he did not like what he was reading he looked up Secretary of State John Hartsfield who an old friend and had been a senator from Maine for thirty years before he agreed to be Secretary of State.

"Why the hell do problems like this pop up in an election year?" The problem he was referring to was the dramatically deteriorating situation in Guatemala rioting had now popped up in dozens of Guatemalan cities and town including as of this morning Guatemala City

"Do we know who is responsible for this some general, a pissed off politician who lost office and now has an ax to grind?"

John said, "No James, so far no one has come forward claiming responsibility for the riots there are some theories regarding possible Cuban or Chinese involvement, but so far there seems to be little evidence to support this. In fact the Chinese are pulling their citizens out of the country"

President Harper stood up and walked to the window as glanced out the window he said. "John we don't need this right now the United States has its hands full as you well know. The Middle East is blowing up like bunch of Fourth of July fire crackers. China and Vietnam are bickering over fishing and oil claims which are just off shore of both countries and also because they just plain hate each other. The Russians are screaming bloody murder over our defense shield, not to mention that Russia and Ukraine are on the verge of shooting war over Russia detention of a Ukrainian diplomat, and now Guatemala suddenly decides to self destruct for no apparent reason."

Secretary Hartsfield then got up and walked towards the window as he came besides him he said "James the ambassador to Guatemala is requesting that we get our citizens out of the country. He says the violence is getting worse by the hour and he is not sure that the Menendez Administration will survive this"

President Harper looked at John and said "You're a good friend John and you have never given me bad advice. Tell the ambassador to proceed with evacuating our citizens I'll have the press secretary announce this at around five."

President Harper then said with a smile "At least this will distract the media long enough to give Congressman Johnston a break."

John laughed and said "I doubt it, how often does a Congressman get caught having sex with two underage stripers in a sleazy hotel in St Louis. Not forget to mention that he was caught wearing a dress while doing this. No it would take a nuclear war or an alien invasion to distract the media from that." President Harper laughed, "I suppose so, well I must unfortunately end this meeting keep me posted on any more developments"

"I will, have a good day James"

"you too John."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"A Guy, a Scratch, and Three Hundred Million Zombies"

"This is my first time writing, please comment, I want to get better."

The Thanatos virus spread rather quickly. Within two weeks it had hit the United States, and by the third week it had hit both China and Europe. In some areas it spread more slowly, it took six months for Thanatos to hit Australia, and up to a year to hit certain Pacific Islands. Nations tried in vain to close their boarders, but the mass of humanity was too great. It took a long time for the United States to be overwhelmed by the zombie hoards it took six months but overwhelmed it was. Like in Guatemala the outbreak began with one person and like in Guatemala, the people in charge did not recognize the true danger until it was far too late.

February 15th 2008 Guatemala City

John Kingston rushed through the ruined streets of Guatemala City, towards the US embassy. The acrid smell of smoke and rotting flesh hung heavily in the air, as he looked behind him he could see pillars of smoke coming from the direction of the refugee centers near the edge of the city. John was not alone there were hundreds of people in street, desperately trying to get away. In their panic people had smashed their cars into each other even into other buildings. He saw that one old looking truck had run right into local grocery store and had caught fire. The whole building was now on fire and it looked like the building next to it by the looks it an overcrowded tenement had caught fire as well. He noticed that there were no police, or fire trucks coming to put out the flames. However, John knew the reason for this. The police the fire department, as well as the Guatemalan army, were engaged in stopping these people that had gone crazy, and had started attacking other people. He still felt a wave of disgust and horror as he saw group of people take down a child and rip him apart. The worst part was that they looked look they were eating him, in fact he was sure they were eating him. He remembered what the rioters had looked like, they were completely fucked up. Most of them had horrendous injuries to their necks, arms, legs, and in the case of one man had all his guts hanging out. The strange part was that the man did not even seem to notice or slow down, as he chased after a group of fleeing police officers. Most of all he remembered their eyes they were all cloudy and dry looking but the look in the eyes of these people were all the same filled with hunger, anger, and rage. John had thankfully gotten away so far with only small one injury, as he had been running down the street one of the rioters had tried to grab him. However, they guy had been too overeager and had fallen flat on his face. As the guy fell he had given John a very minor scratch on the back of his leg, just enough draw a little blood.

A few days ago, John was a twenty one year old college senior in Guatemala looking at Mayan ruins for his thesis paper, in the northern part of the country. When the rioting began in Soloma, and had spread to surrounding communities, he had been placed on a bus with other foreigners, by guys who looked like they were in the military, and they had been driven to the capital for their safety. Yesterday, the United States, and several other nations announced they were evacuating there citizens, and for good reason. The rioting had hit Guatemala City hard yesterday starting in the refugee centers and John decided to get out of the country. He knew that his parents had been trying to get a hold of him, but his cell phone had stopped working three days ago. He had heard a rumor that the Guatemalan government had shut down all civilian communications. As John turned the corner he saw the American Embassy right ahead he saw that there were a mob of people trying to get in, many of them John observed were Guatemalan citizens, trying to flee the fighting. John pushed his way to the front of the crowd and got the attention of one of the embassy guards. John yelled out, "My name is John Kingston, I am an American citizen, I have a passport to prove it" The guard told John to come. After briefly looking at the passport the guard said, "Get in kid, you are just in time, the last helicopter leaves in thirty minutes, along with us, the state department is pulling out all diplomatic staff and American citizens. Hell even the ambassador leaving town." John exclaimed, "Shit it's gotten that bad." The guard said " Yes, and then some, the only cities in Guatemala that are still somewhat functional are near the border with Honduras, but even they are starting to see increased levels of unrest. Hell this crap starting to pop up just over the border into Mexico, so far they have done a good job at keeping things under control" John said "I saw from freaky things on the way in to the embassy, it sort like stuff out Dawn of Dead or something like that." The guard said, "Well your safe now, let's get you up to helicopter, it looks like you're the last guy who is going to be coming in on their own. The Guatemalan military is trying to seal off the city, but so far they failing" As John and Guard came onto the roof of the embassy, there was a massive explosion near the center of the city, it was powerful enough to creak windows in the embassy, a few seconds after that the power went out. The guard said "Holy shit, alright kid get in the helicopter, looks like this bird is going to take off a little early." Just then the radio in the guards belt came alive, "Attention all guard's proceed to the front gate the rioters have shown up and attacking the crowd outside." suddenly there was a bust of gunfire and a piercing scream followed by silence. The guard turned to the pilot and said "Get this bird flying now the shits hitting the fan." The pilot closed the doors and started up the engines and took off. As the helicopter rose John looked down and saw something out hell. The rioters were literally ripping the crowd apart, while the embassy guard were shooting into the crowd in an attempt to stop them. As the helicopter flew away from Guatemala City, the extent of the devastation became clear. The center of the city where the explosion had taken place was nothing but a pillar of smoke, fire, and rubble. Other sections of the city were on fire as well, he could see the Guatemalan army, firing artillery and tank shells into the rioters, with little effect they just kept advancing. This was John's last view of Guatemala City.

When John arrived in Mexico City ten hours latter to take a flight back home to Minneapolis, He noticed for the first that his leg hurt. He sat down and looked at his leg, he noticed that where the rioter had scratched him seemed to look rather inflamed, he thought to himself "I do not have time to see a doctor right now, I will, once I get back home. Besides my parents are beside themselves with worry." Six hours later he arrived in Minneapolis Minnesota, where he was greeted by his parents and younger brother with hugs and kisses. They then proceeded back to their house in the suburbs of Minneapolis to a place called Andover. After a few hours, John told his parents that he was going to bed. He felt very tired, and he felt like he was coming down with the flu or something because he felt all achy, and seemed to be running a slight fever. He looked down at his leg and saw that it had seemed to have gotten a little worse and he could see dark lines moving away from the scratch. John went into the medicine cabinet and got out some anti bacterial cream and iodine and rubbed it on the scratch. When John woke up the next day he felt very ill, and decided to stay in bed his leg was throbbing as was his head He let his mother know that he was feeling ill and tired, and would not be getting out of bed. His mother brought him some aspirin and Dayquil and left him to sleep. Four hours later he had a turn for the worse, and lapsed into a coma. His temperature rising, from 102 to 106 in a matter of couple of hours, when his mother walked in to check on him she assumed he was sleeping.

One hour latter John was dead, and five minutes later he had been resurrected by the Thanatos virus. In the next two hours John killed his mother and father who in turn killed John's little brother and best friend when they came home from school as well as a neighbor who had come over to borrow a snow shovel from John's father. Thanatos had come to the United States.

February 16th 2008 from CNN World News

Our top story tonight is the crises in Central America which continues to spread at this hour. All communications between the outside world and Guatemala City have been cut off. As the nation spirals into anarchy with the central government more or less in tatters. The unrest and rioting appears to be spreading to surrounding nations, with the border region between Mexico and Guatemala the most heavily affected area. The Mexican Government has announced the mobilization of its army along the border with Guatemala in order to contain the escalating violence. As of this hour it has been confirmed by several reliable sources, both within and outside the Guatemalan government, that over two hundred thousand people are estimated to be dead with over one million wounded.

CNN has breaking news. Several unnamed sources have told CNN that the President of Guatemala is dead. His convoy which was fleeing Guatemala City, for the safety of a military base fifty miles outside the capital was attacked by rioters and overwhelmed. More on this developing story as it unfolds

February 18th Andover Minnesota

"Attention unit 60, we have a report of a fight in progress on the corner of Main Street and Hanson Blvd." "Ten four, unit 60 is on their way." Detective Frank Caseman, and his partner Detective Jim Calhoun, had been best friends since they were four, and were now both apart of the Andover Police Department. Frank said to his partner, "Why the hell is all this crap happening, I thought crime went down in cold weather." The crap that Frank had been talking about was the rash of seemingly random attacks on people throughout the town. So far twenty people had been attacked, some of them very seriously. There was one person possible more who had been murdered one was a twelve year boy. When Frank had arrived on the scene and saw that the child had be literally torn to pieces. He had thrown up in the bushes like a first year rookie, rather than a fifteen year veteran of the force. He had angrily said "What the hell is this world coming too" He wanted to catch the animal that had done this, and see that they were locked away in the deepest darkest hole he could find, for the rest of their lives. The other possible murders was where the six year old child was found he had been found on the porch of a two story house on a quiet street the House which belonged to a family called the Kingston's had been covered literally in blood however the family were nowhere to be found and there was too much blood to have come from one body it turned out the child had been a friend of the youngest son of the Kingston's Jimmy. This murder had struck Frank particularly hard, because he had two boys of his own one was Frank Jr. he was seven, and the other was John he was thirteen. Both boys looked like him, with dirty blond hair and a very fair complexion. However, they had their mother's eyes, which were a rich and vibrant blue, almost the color of the summer sky. Jim, his partner was the same age as himself 40 Jim like Frank was well built, but not a real stocky guy. He had red hair and green eyes, like Frank he had two boys, both around the same age as his own children Carl was also seven, and Ron was fourteen. Like their fathers both sets of boys were each other's best friends However, Jim also had very good looking daughter by the name of Katharine, who was fifteen and like her father had red hair and green eyes. Frank ever the observant man, noticed that his son John would get all nervous around Katharine. He thought to himself, my son is becoming a man. I will have to give him the talk that my father did when I was thirteen. His partner and friend Jim interrupted his thoughts by saying "look alive, buddy, we're coming up on the scene."

As the police cruiser pulled up both officers saw that this was no assault, rather it was a murder. There was a wide pool of dark crimson blood staining the snow bank besides the side walk, and what looked to be an old woman underneath a very fat balding man wearing no shirt and what looked to be pajama bottoms. This was hard to tell because they were stained with blood. Frank said to Jim call for back up and jumped out of the car. Frank yelled at the suspect to "freeze." The suspect turned his head to Fran reveling what he was. The man's face had been torn off and he was missing an eye. He had massive wounds on his neck and arms, and he looked like he was missing most of his right shoulder, his skin what little there was left had turned a dark purplish blue. Frank thought to himself there is no way this man can be alive. As he started to rise, he saw that he not only killed the old lady, but had eating her arm. Her throat had been torn out and her eyes had that glaze one sees in death. Frank snapped out of it, and shouted "I said freeze!" The man as wounded as he was gave out a scream of primordial rage and anger, and ran full speed towards Frank. Frank whipped out his pistol and shot the man in the chest the man stumbled but kept coming. Frank them emptied the service revolver into the fat man, but he kept coming. The fat man plowed into Frank and both went down. The man was trying to bite and scratch Frank, but because of the extra thick cloths he was wearing he was protected. Frank took his hands, and started to push the man's head away. Suddenly there were three loud bangs and the top of the man's head exploded off to the right. Frank pushed the corpse off him, and pushed himself away. He looked over and saw that his friend Jim had shot the man. Frank said "Holy shit." Jim hands were visibly shaking as he put his gun back in the holster and ran over to Frank, "Jesus Christ are you okay Frank." Frank, panting said yah I am fine my side feels like it was hit by a bat, but other than that I am fine look not even a scratch. Christ what the hell was wrong with that guy, PCP couldn't even have of done this. Hell look at his face and neck. Frank glanced over as the first squad cars came over as well as the paramedics. Two officer got out of the car there guns drawn. They looked down at the old lady, and then at the fat man, they then looked at Frank and Jim, and said "What the hell happened here?" Jim responded "That guy killed that old woman, and then tried to kill my partner, so I shot him" the officers then said to Frank do you need any medical assistance. Frank said his side hurt but he had been hurt worse.

Suddenly there was a shout from one of the paramedics. "Get a stretcher over here this woman is alive." Frank and Jim looked over and saw that the woman was twitching and shaking. As she was lifted onto the stretcher and strapped down one of the paramedics was putting the oxygen mask on her face. She then opened her eyes and proceeded to bite down on the paramedics thumb. The paramedic a thirty year old guy shrieked and drew away holding his hand minus a thumb. Frank and Jim both saw that the woman had bitten off his thumb in addition she was eating the thumb. The other two officers told the other paramedics to help the other paramedic and get that woman to the hospital she was obviously crazed from the attack the Paramedic was screaming, "The bitch bit of my thumb." The officer who had given the order said "Holy Shit, the worlds gone mad what's next." As if to answer his question, the radio came to life. "Attention all police personal, your assistance is needed for riot in progress at Methodist Hospital" Jim said, "Christ that's in Minneapolis isn't that were all the attack victims have been going" Frank looked at Jim and said "Shit it's only nine o'clock, and we have seven hours left in our shift"

February 19th 2008, Washington DC, White House, Situation Room

It was four in morning in Washington DC; most of its citizens were asleep at this hour. But this was not so in the White House. The West Wing was beehive of activity and none more so then in the Situation Room. President Harper had called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the rapidly disintegrating situation in Central America, and the rioting in Minneapolis. President Harper opened the meeting by saying, "As you well know the governor of Minnesota as well as the mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, have declared a state of emergency in sections of their cities. So far the local police seem to have the situation under control, and the governor expects that the riots will be contained by eight this evening. That's one part of the good news. The second part is that most media attention seems to be focused on Central America; therefore, this event has gotten little press coverage so far. Vice President James Richardson broke in. "Mr. President, while I might a little paranoid at times, I do have to ask these question. What if the riot in Minneapolis is connected somehow to the rioting in Central America? My reason for asking, is that these two events seem to bare many similarities." Secretary of Defense Ralph Anderson broke in "Allow me to possibly answer that question Mr. Vice President. We are currently looking into that possibility. However the distances between the two riots makes it seem highly unlikely that these two events are related.

President Harper then changing the subject looked up at the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and asked, "What is the current state of American military power and assets in Central America." General Canny immediately answered, "We have military assets in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and some naval ships off the coast of Mexico. There are also a large number of troop assets in the Southwestern United States and Texas." The President said good. "I have received requests from the governments of El Salvador, Belize, Honduras and what's left of the Guatemalan Government for military aid. I intend to give it to them. So far the Mexican government is holding its own, but we have intelligence indicating violence similar to what is happening in Guatemala has began to show up in the Yucatan, as well as in the nations I mentioned earlier, who are asking for military aid." Vice President Richardson cut in and asked the Secretary of State, "What is causing this?" The secretary responded "we know very little at this point, we have lost all contact with our intelligence assets in that nation. No group has come forward, and no one has claimed responsibility. At this moment the CDC, and Homeland Security, are working on a theory that the rioting may be due to some sort of chemical or biological attack or accident. If this turns out to be true then we are looking at a disaster that will dwarf the 2005 tsunami. I say this because the death toll according to what intelligence assets was do have, suggest that between four and six hundred thousand are now dead with millions wounded." An addible gasp filled the room the Secretary went on "However, I must warn you that this numbers are only a guess at this point." The Secretary of Homeland Security then spoke up Homeland Security with the approval of Congress and the president and in conjunction with the Red Cross are working on setting up refugee centers in Texas, Florida and other Gulf Coast states. We are expecting the first refugees tomorrow. This is in addition to Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, Jamaica, and The European Union, who are either opening refugee centers or are offering asylum to Guatemalan citizens." There were nods of approval throughout the room.

Just then the President's Press Secretary rushed into the room. President Harper startled, asked, "What's the matter Jim" "Sorry to interrupt sir but you have to see this." The Press Secretary turned on the televisions on the wall to show live images of massive rioting in the streets of downtown Minneapolis. Several buildings appeared to be on fire and it looked like police were firing into the crowd. President Harper said, "Dear God." He then said to his Chief of Staff, "Get the Governor of Minnesota and the Mayor of Minneapolis on the phone now." Looking at the shocked look on the faces of his cabinet, he said, "It's going to be long day, people will want answers, and we have to give it to them."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Death Rides

Soloma Guatemala February 20th 2008

It was a bright sunny day in Soloma, not a cloud in the sky, a pleasant but moderate breeze blew in the trees it would seem to be a perfect day in a topical paradise. However, things were not as they seemed one can smell smoke in the air from one of the many dying fires that had consumed most of Soloma over the past week one fire in particular centered on what once was a gas station had burned for week and a half before a rain storm extinguished it. However , there is also another smell in the air like rotting meat but somewhat sweeter smelling, something you can't quite figure out. If one were foolish enough to stroll down the ruined streets one would see evidence of what happened here. You would see a car here and there sticking out of a building, you notice would notice that most buildings are missing windows or in some cases even their doors they are not hard to find because they are now in the street along with a fine layer of ash and various other debris, it would seem as if there were no life here. This is technically correct however there is something here rather there are many things here creatures more deadly than any before it one driven by rage and hunger. They were once the citizens of this town they were once mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, doctors, farmers, rich and poor, but now they are walking moaning shells of themselves, they are the dead and they now rule Soloma.

From Fox News February 20th 2008

Fox News has received unconfirmed reports that some sort of plane crash has taken place at Orly airport located just south of Paris were Guatemalan refugees were being processed. Preliminary reports have over 300 dead and hundreds wounded, when the plane crashed into airports main terminal more on this story as it develops.

ABC News February 20th 5:01 Pm

The rioting in Minneapolis and Saint Paul continues to worsen by the hour as fighting has now spread to the suburbs of each city, and as far east as the Wisconsin boarder. Marital law has been declared for all of South Eastern Minnesota, as President Harper has vowed to restore order as soon as possible.

MSNBC News February 20th 8:05 pm

It has been confirmed that rioting on the scale of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Belize has been confirmed in Southern Mexico. As of this hour the cities of Campeche, Merida, and Tuxtla Gutiérrez are under martial law and twenty four hour curfew, with reports coming in of street fighting between the Mexican army and rioters. Meanwhile in related news all communication between Guatemala, Northern El Salvador and the Southern Mexican Boarder was lost around 4pm Eastern time.

Fox News February 20th 2008 8:07 Pm

Rescue workers attempting to get to those people still trapped in Orly Airport's main terminal were attacked and apparently killed by what French officials are calling crazed maniacs. French police have sealed off the airport and are apparently planning to retake the airport so rescue operations can continue.

London Times February 21st 2008 Headline

Rioting in United States and Central America Grow Worse: Minneapolis and Saint Paul Devastated all contact lost with Guatemala

From a US navy patrol boat thirty miles outside San Salvador, El Salvador February 21st 2008

Commander: PT 23 report status.

PT 23: We are now thirty miles outside San Salvador, on approach to the city we found most of the city burning. Apparently the El Salvadorians bombed their own capital according to the few survivors we found.

Commander: How many survivors did you retrieve?

PT 23 Ten, three with serious wounds, they almost look like bite marks, we will be returning within the hour.

Commander: Thank you, over and out.

February 21st 2008 NBS midday news

Rioting continues today across the globe today as the death toll from this conflict is expected to breach one million by tomorrow morning. Here is what has happened so far. Today a French police effort to retake Orly Airport failed as the rioters overwhelmed police and broke out of the airport perimeter. We are now receiving reports of attacks around the vicinity of the airport. In Central America San Salvador was confirmed to have been destroyed by the El Salvadorian government, after the last army unit defending the city was overrun. This is in addition to reports that rioting and attacks has been reported as far south as the Panama/Nicaragua boarder and as far north as Veracruz. In the heartland rioting continues in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, as the rioting expands to the suburbs of each city there have been unconfirmed reports of attacks in Duluth and Madison although these attacks at this hour remain unsubstantiated Property damages from the rioting is expected to reach into the tens of billions.

February 22nd 2008 Hong Kong Outer Harbor

A small detachment of about twenty PLA soldiers in a large army cargo truck were making their way down a dark street towards the cities outer harbor. They were investigating reports that a large cargo plane which had crashed/beached it's self a few miles outside of the city's financial district. While normally a crashed cargo plane would not require the services of the PLA, particularly a plane that had crashed in rather remote area. It was confirmed by higher ups that this cargo plane was from El Salvador, a nation severely affected by the rioting in Central America. Many of the men on the truck had heard whispers in the officer barracks and among the other soldiers of some of the atrocities being committed in the region, which including reports of mutilation and even cannibalism. Their orders were therefore clear; they were to prevent any of these crazies from violating the territorial integrity of the Peoples Republic of China. As the solider made their way towards the cargo plane they could see that it had broken in two but it was for the most part intact. Capitan Yin Chang the commander of this mission barked at his soldiers to make their way towards the plane. Capitan Chang, was 30 and had been practically raised by the PLA since he enlisted at 16 after the death of his father, a poor street peddler in Beijing. He had been raised to be tough and hard from an early age, yet raised to be smart in more ways than just street smart, three qualities which had served him well in his rise in the army. As Capitan Chang and his men made their way towards the plane, he had the distinct feeling that something wasn't right, a sense he had picked up from his days in the back alleys of Beijing. Captain Chang told his men to keep their guard up, the lead soldiers came to where the plane was broken in two and peered in with a flashlight. The inside of the plane looked much worse than the outside, it seemed as if everything in the plane had been uprooted and strewn about. There was blood everywhere but where were the bodies? A crash of this magnitude should have left bodies everywhere, but there were none to be seen Chang turned to his men and said "Privates Yang and Lin come with me the rest of you stand guard," "Yes sir," they replied automatically

They came out twenty minutes later Privates Yang and Lin looked visibly pale Captain Chang betrayed no emotions, however inside he was scared. They had found bodies but only two, a person who looked like he was the captain and a female, both had died it seemed from blunt head trauma judging from the fact that their brains were leaking out. But that was not what scared Chang, both had had bit marks all over them the woman in particular was heavily mutilated with most of her throat gone as well as an arm. The captain was missing half his face but perhaps what scared Chang the most was that this had happened in a sealed cockpit. This did not explain the amount of blood and in some cases a body part or two scattered throughout the plane, and did not explain what had happened to the rest of the passengers? There suddenly there was a piercing scream, followed by several others some of which sounded inhuman and crazed, in the distance, it dawned on Capitan Chang that the crazies might have made it to China.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4

February 20nd 2008 South Dakota 5:00 AM

On a dark and desolate highway heading towards the Montana boarder a new but battered looking camper heads towards the mountains in Western Montana. Inside the camper is the Caseman and Calhoun families, we see that Frank Caseman is driving with Jim in the passenger seat reading a map. In the back one could hear the low whispers of both their wives while the children were finally sleeping. Frank was silent reflecting on the events of the past three days.

February 18th 2008 Methodist Hospital

Methodist Hospital had been a disaster pure and simple. By the time they had gotten there the hospital had been sealed off by SWAT and Minneapolis Police. Even from the staging area, a block from the hospital one could hear screaming and the sounds of small gunfire coming from the building. When they had gotten to the staging area they had been immediately given riot armor as well as an automatic weapon and told to proceed to the perimeter line of the police blockade. One could feel the tension in the air as the two officers proceeded to the lines in front of the building. Even from his vantage point in the back of the police lime, Frank saw that this was going very hard, he could see bloodstains covering a good many of the windows on the second and third stories, the only ones that were not bloodstained were those that were broken. Whatever had happed was very bad indeed. Jim looked up at the windows "What the hell do you think happened here?" Before he could answer a middle aged but graying officer called over the bullhorn for all newly arriving people to get over here. Frank, Jim, and a number of other officers proceeded over to where the officer was "My name is Captain John Saint-Clair in twenty minutes we will be preparing to storm the building, you will be second wave and will proceed into the building five minutes after the first wave. " A young looking officer asked "Sir what the hell happened here?" The Captain looked at the officer and said "six hours ago Methodist Hospital began to receive a number of assault victims from the Andover, Northern Minneapolis area. As of two hours ago these assault victims began to attack other staff and patients in the hospital. Hospital security was over whelmed within ten minutes and all contact was lost with the hospital over an hour ago." the officers began talking amongst themselves "Okay listen up I want you all to proceed to the front of the hospital and take up positions, move it on the double." "Yes Sir" the officers replied as they proceeded to their positions Frank turned to Jim and said, "Looks like the shits hit the fan tonight" Jim looked over and said, "You be careful buddy I don't want to save your ass twice in one day"

Ten minutes later the first wave of police officers made their way to the front of the hospital. There was an eerie silence in the air as the lead officer reached the front doors there was a whooshing sound as the front doors slid open. The inside of the lobby looked as through a tornado had ripped through the building. Furniture was over turned, and in some cases smashed, there was blood everywhere the TV in the lobby had been torn off its hinges and now lay in blood stained heap on the floor. The nurse's station lay abandoned a computer monitor lying intact on the floor next to large blood stain. The officers could see that someone had tried to barricade the doors to the ER, but they had been ripped off their hinges and lay on the floor. The one pristine white paint of the door covered in blood and brown smears. As the officers made there was down the hallway one officer made a mistake which would cost him his life as well as those of his fellow officers, as he was passing a cart with surgical tools lying on it the edge of his elbow caught the tray and sent the tools crashing to the floor. As soon as this happened the whole hospital seemed to erupt in screams of rage, pain, and hunger. The doors down the hall were blown off their hinges by a human wave of death. The officers not even bothering to warn them opened fire. The hallway around and in front of the ghouls seemed to explode in bits of plaster, glass, and human flesh. The officers were scoring direct hits on these people hitting most in the chest and the abdomen, besides stumbling this didn't seem to faze them at all, only the ones that were shot in the head fell and did not get back up. However, in the confusion of the gunfight this was not noticed by the officers. Ten seconds after they had burst through the doors the lead zombie's, reached the officers and began to feed. One officer had most of his nose torn off, while another was fighting off a woman who had her teach buried in her arm. As more and more officers were taken down the commander ordered a retreat, as the officers raced out of the building the zombies followed them, the rest of the officers including Frank and Jim, opened fire on the rioters. Like in the hospital many took hits to the chest, but still kept on going, there were some that were hit in the head and stayed down. The river of the dead coming out of the hospital had become a raging torrent, and the lead zombies reached the police line with in thirty seconds. Soon all group cohesion was destroyed as the officer fought pitched battles with rioters. Frank noticed that if you shot them in the head they went down for good. Frank yelled over to Jim who was pouring gunfire into a crowd of rioters tearing into a group of officers, "Jim aim for the head" Jim adjusted his aim and killed an old woman who had latched on to the back of a young female officer. Frank looked over and saw a man who looked to be a hundred running at an impossibly fast spread towards Jim. Frank, yelled "Jim duck down" Jim, fell to the ground as Frank fired his gun and blew the top of the old man's head off. Over the din of the fighting he heard over his radio the order for a general retreat back to the base of operations.

February 19th 2008 Minneapolis and Saint Paul

In what history books would latter call the first battle of the twin cites a force of over 900 zombies killed over 170 police officers, while wounding over 220 by dawn of February twentieth, 185 had turned in zombies with the remainder to turn over the next two hours. What no one would know until much later this was only a small number of those who would turn or had already turned. Because, for every one person who called in an attack to the police there were three more who did not for various reasons. Over the next twenty four hours many of these people would turn and attack more people, thus a vicious cycle was born. A cycle which would only break when the last living human fell, this cycle would repeat its self all over the world over the next few months.

February 19th Downtown Minneapolis 2:39 Pm

Frank and his partner Jim had been on the job for almost eighteen hours, many of those hours had been spent fighting but mostly running from the increasing number of rioters, if one could even call them rioters. Frank was beginning to be convinced that these people were either screwed up on some new drug that made you crazy, and nearly impervious to pain. Or perhaps even more radically these people were not human or human as we know them. Whatever they were they were now right in down town Minneapolis, there was smoke coming from some of the windows in the Foshay tower and the streets looked like a bomb had gone off. Many people unaware of the situation had driven to work as usual; the result was that they were attacked as soon as they made it to downtown. Therefore downtown was a labyrinth of crashed cars and downed street lamps, there were a great many burned or burning storefronts as well as dead bodies everywhere. At 3PM, they had received the word to pull out of downtown Minneapolis and form a defensive perimeter around the city, along with the National Guard. Not that there were many police left anyways, another 120 had been killed since the Methodist hospital disaster. Indeed it had been the darkest twenty four hours for police in Minnesota history. However Frank and Jim have had enough not that they were cowards or shirking their duty. But they were more worried about their family's safety. After briefly talking they decided to bail out and protect their families, and perhaps get the hell out of dodge. Getting out of the city was difficult there were car wreaks everywhere, and it appeared that the local criminal population had taken advantage of the situation and had looted a great deal of the city. There were even some fires burning out of control in some neighborhoods due to the fire department either being dead or preoccupied with stopping downtown from burning down. For the first ten minutes both Frank and Jim were silent, it was Jim that broke the silence, "Frank I have seen a lot of shit in my life but I have never seen shit like this before. The brass is calling these people rioters, bullshit these people are not normal, they have wounds that should of killed them. You remember that man in front of the Foshay Tower; he was dragging his guts behind him as he took down a three hundred pound man. I may be going crazy but this seems like Dawn of the Dead shit, or some new terrorist weapon." Frank wanted to argue against what Jim had to say. However, as much as he tried to rationalize this he couldn't, he had had seen what Jim had seen and he would swear on a bible that Jim was not crazy. Instead Frank said, "I think your right, there is no way in god's green earth these people should be still walking around. I shot an old woman yesterday in the heart, I know I did, I was the top of my class in shooting at the academy, but yet this woman didn't even lose a stride. Jim turned to Frank, and said "What should we do?" Frank, thought for a moment, "The first thing is to gather our families together and get out of town. I have a cabin in Montana I inherited from my folks when they died, it's not the biggest in the world, but room enough for two families if we bunk together." Jim said, "That's good enough for me, I'll bring the camper we have, as well as the trailer we will load it up with whatever we need. I will go to the store and get bottled water canned food, and camping gear medicine. "What time should we meet up?" Frank said "11pm my house." Jim "I can do that" Frank said, "Good because the shits hitting the fan.

Andover 5pm February 19th 2008

After Frank had dropped Jim off, he made his way towards his own house two blocks over. Frank noticed how silent the streets were which would serve his purposes well. As he pulled into his driveway he looked up at the house he had lived in for years, a two story, four bedrooms, two bath house, in a nice middle class neighborhood. Frank got out of his car and made his way to the front door, as he opened the door he found himself staring down the barrel of a twelve gage shotgun. The person wielding the shotgun was his son John, Frank nearly jumped out of his skin and shouted out "Jesus Christ". John immediately lowered and dropped the gun, and ran to his father. John blurted, "I am so sorry dad, I thought you might have been one of those things, one came by earlier and tried to get in the back door but it ran off." Frank said to John "It's alright John you did the right thing protecting your mother and brother, where are they? "Mom and Frank Jr. are up stairs." Just then his wife Lynda came down the stairs and burst into tears, she ran and hugged and kissed frank all the while saying "Oh thank god your alright, I was so scared I been watching the riots all day and they kept reporting that allot of police had been killed. I tried to get through to the station but no one would pick up." I even called Sally but she hadn't heard anything about Jim either. Frank then said "Don't worry everything's fine we lost allot of people but fortunately both myself and Jim were able to get back." John then broke in and said "Dad what the hell is going on they canceled school today and there have been a bunch of crazy people running around. I heard one of my classmates was attacked last night, some guy bit him in the hand for no reason." Frank said, "I don't know exactly what going on, but I need you two right now to do what I say. We are getting out of town, and going to the cabin. This rioting is only getting worse and it's a matter of time before they get here. Jims, coming with his family as well Andover is no longer safe. He was met by silence from both Lynda and John; it seemed like an eternity before Lynda said "It's really that bad Frank it even worse than the news is letting on." Frank said "Yes" Lynda exchanged a knowing look between her and Frank she then said "what do you want us to do?" Frank paused for a moment and then said "John, I want you to go up stairs and pack warm clothing for you and your brother. I also want you to empty the medicine cabinet and pack that too. When you are done see me." John said "okay dad" Frank turned then to Lynda, "I want you to pack cloths for us take only the warm stuff, also bring blankets and the safe. When you're done with that pack all of the canned food put, everything by the front door. From behind him he heard a high pitched voice yell "Daddy" his son Frank Jr. ran up and gave him a big hug. Frank returned the hug and said "listen sport, I want you go up stairs and help your brother do whatever he says" "Okay dad" Frank Jr. said running off. Frank turned to Lynda and said "I know this is tough but we have to do this" Lynda sighed and said, "You would never lie about something this big, if you we have to go then we have to go." Frank, went up and kissed her and said I love you Lynda

10 miles west of Andover Minnesota February 20th 2008 12 am

There departure had gone off without a hitch, Jim had come at eleven with a trailer full of canned goods and other non perishable, water, blankets, a large portable stove with lots of gas but most importantly guns and ammunition. Along with Franks gun collection this brought their total up to a dozen guns including their two service pistols, two hunting rifles, three twelve gage shotguns, three assault rifles, a magnum, and perhaps the biggest gun they had was an AK 47. This one they kept in the front of the camper. After some debate they decided to arm the three oldest children with John getting one hunting rifle and Ron getting a shotgun and Katharine who had won a competition the previous year for skeet shooting getting the other hunting rifle both their wives took a service pistols while Frank and Jim took two of the assault rifles even though the power was still on although it had been flickering one could see the glow in the sky from the fires ravaging down town Minneapolis and St Paul. There drive thought he deserted streets were uneventful for the first ten minutes; the rioting must be keeping everyone indoors Frank thought it was eerie. Here and there, one saw and army jeep or truck heading south but otherwise the streets were deserted as they got to the outskirts of Andover, they saw what remained of a horrific accident involving what appeared to be the remains of seven cars. While Frank did not point this out he saw someone eating what remained of an arm, he picked up speed towards Montana.


	6. Chapter 6

**February 22nd 2008 Washington DC White House**

President Harper was for the first time in many years frightened things were escalating rapidly the ground commander in the twin cities had requested permission to pull out of the centers of both cities stating that they were a total loss. Most of down town Minneapolis had burned even resulting in one skyscraper collapsing into a riot torn street, god only knows how many were killed. Saint Paul's down town was a war zone with the rioters of if you listened to some of the more wacked out network commentators "zombies" controlling most downtown areas. Regardless of what they were the army had lost 765 people with some even joining the rioters. Fighting was beginning to intensify in Duluth, Saint Cloud, Madison and most boarder counties in Wisconsin and Iowa. Highways were jammed throughout Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan's Northern peninsula as well as eastern North and South Dakota. The Canadians had sealed there boarders in the affected areas.

Central America was a total loss; communications between Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize, and Southern Mexico were lost, while communication with Nicaragua would probably be lost today or the next day. Satellite images showed that the rioters were in control of almost all of these counties with scattered pockets of government control shown by the massive crowd of rioters surrounding these areas. Already the southern boarders states, were reporting a massive increase in traffic both legal and illegal immigration.

There was a knock on his door President Harper warily said "come in"

The head of the CDC Mel Frankford came in he was to the point "Mr. President we have a very serious problem."

The president said "what else could be worse then what's happening now?"

Mel said, "We might know what is causing the riots."

The President immediately perked up, "Don't tell me this was some sort of biological of chemical attack."

Mel said "No this is something new ever rioter we have captured or killed have had an abnormally, in fact astronomically high white blood cell count upon further investigation we found a retrovirus we have never seen before.

The president said in utter dismay "This is some sort of disease oh Jesus it's everywhere."

Mel then said this is not the worse part these white blood cells we found they were severely deteriorated or dead so to speak. So was all of the tissue we extracted from these people both living if you can call them living and dead basically somehow these people are clinically dead but still active."

The President screamed "what do mean if there living, what the hell is going on? The country is going bat shit crazy and you are basically saying these people are dead, like some sort Romero movie come to life. No offense but I think this is complete bullshit."

Mel calmly responded. "I was skeptical myself, I even almost fired the doctor that came to me with this but I checked and double checked his work I even took samples myself I wanted to be completely sure but I came to the same conclusions that these people are somehow running around when they are medically dead, and by dead, I mean starting to decompose."

President Harper sat down hard "you can confirm this with scientific proof, and get the doctor who discovered this to talk about what he found."

Mel said "yes and no. Yes I can provide scientific prove, but no on the doctor his name was Jonathan Thanatos and he was killed by one of the zombies when the restraints broke on the gurney holding it down."

President Harper was silent for a moment the President then picked up the phone and told his secretary to call the Joint Chiefs

President Harper told Mel, "Can you tell them what you told me and prove it?"

Mel said, "Yes"

President Harper looked at his and said I pray you are wrong although I doubt it

**February 23nd 2008 Bulletin posted on all major networks**

By order of the President of the United States with Congressional approval due to the emergency and unrest sweeping the upper Midwest, the following actions are to be under taken as of 12 Pm Eastern Standard time.

The states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota are hereby under martial law.

The states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Northern Iowa under twenty four hour curfew with the writ of habeas Corpus are hereby suspended.

There is as of this message a price freeze which will go into effect concerning all wages, goods, and services. Anyone caught gouging will be detained without council.

Police, rescue, and firefighting services in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota are hereby federalized.

National Guard Units in all fifty states as well as territories under the control of the United States government are to be federalized and mobilized.

The nation's boarder between Mexico and Canada are to be sealed

Any attempts at vigilantism or secessionist activity will be met with deadly force.

**February 23rd MSNBC Headline**

Stock Market Crashes: Falls 900 points in one day continuing two week decline of over 3000 point from record high of 15,460 to 11,234.

**February 24th Havana Cuba**

The man lay dying in his bed; two weeks ago he had been the poster child for success in Costa Rica, now he was a nameless face dying in a Havana hospital. His name was Juan Del Rico; he had been one of the richest men in Costa Rica. He had heard about the outbreak of violence in Guatemala, and he had been happy why one might ask because, Juan was in the large construction business. There wasn't a type of building that Juan's Company hadn't built, and he knew that when the dust settled he would make tens of millions by picking up and rebuilding the pieces. However, what he did not count on was his violence spreading faster then he or anyone had ever seen. One day it was in some small city in the boondocks of Guatemala by the next day it had spread to the Guatemala capital and from there the whole country and then region had exploded. Two days ago, the violence had reached Costa Rica; because there was little to no army the country had quickly succumbed.

Juan had tried to make it to an airport to get the hell out of the country, in that regard he had succeeded, but not before being attacked by a group of ten of those things. His guards had done their job well all ten were killed in the end but not before one had gotten through what looked to be a eight year old child although it was so torn up it was hard to tell. She had managed to bite his hand before the guards ripped the girl off and shot her. He had made it to five hours latter to Cuba where they were still offering asylum. Those Yank bastards were already sealing there boarders and Europe was no help because they were shitting their collective pants over the fighting in Paris. He had noticed that his hand was throbbing and looked to be infected; he had been taken to a private hospital in Havana even in Communist Cuba money still talked. They had tried to amputate his hand to stop the infection but it had failed. Juan's thoughts continued to spin about his head for an awhile longer he noticed it was getting harder to think and that he had a strange craving for red meat the juicer and warmer the better, it was after this thought that he went into cardiac arrest and died almost instantly.

The thing that was Juan opened its eyes, it was disoriented flashes of memory kept coming to what remained of its mind of people and places it did not know of anymore It felt almost nothing not pain, emotion, love, or hate it only felt one thing hunger, a hunger and craving deeper and more consuming then any it had ever felt before. Juan wanted meat, warm fresh meat, anything with a pulse would do, but something it is mind something ancient and reptilian told it to seek out other people, to feed on them, to devour their flesh, to consume them. Juan got to his feet sending an IV pole crashing to the ground, the needles they had inserted into him ripping out leaving small gouges in his arm. A nurse came in a young woman, she said "what are you doing out of bed you are very sick." These words did register in its mind, but it knew that it had found food. He let out a screech and jumped on her, she only had time for one scream before her throat had been ripped out. The thing felt its craving slightly sated but not by much the hunger was always there. She died two minters latter and joined him very soon after, together they went off in search of more food.

**February 24th 2008 BBC**

The fighting in France grows worse today as French police have admitted that they have abandoned most of Orly, and its airport to the rioters. This comes as rioting initially blamed on Muslim extremist has breached the southern sections of Paris with fighting less than three miles from Central Paris. The rioters according to eyewitnesses do not appear to be one group of people but rather they represent a cross section of French society. There are unconfirmed rumors that the French army will be called out if the fighting continues.

**February 24th 2008 Des Moines Iowa**

Governor Charles Hill of Iowa had had a very busy week and it looked as if it would not end anytime soon. Minnesota was quickly becoming a war zone which was spilling over the boarders into Iowa. Most the counties bordering Minnesota had reported increased attacks from these things as well as unconfirmed reports of looters and general banditry, although nothing so far as bad as the twin cities which were according to top secret reports almost depopulated and mostly destroyed . The army had withdrawn from both cities and had set up bases in Rochester, Owatonna, Mankato, Willmar, Saint Cloud, Malmo, Payne, and Two Harbors in an attempt to contain the violence to the eastern part of the state, the Minnesota state government had relocated to Saint Cloud. Des Moines itself was overcrowded with refugees from what remained of the twin cities which wasn't much, and people coming in from Southern Minnesota and northern Iowa to escape the fighting. Charles, had never in his years had expected a refugee crises in the United States, this happened in other countries but not here. Therefore, when the people started to arrive he did not know what to do. The hotels had filled and so had the hospitals, hell even the stadiums are full. The city's population had gone from just over 200,000 to over 400,000 in a matter of a week; this was putting a serious crunch on the resources of the state. He noticed on the news that allot of people from the last convoy, which had come from Red Wing, had looked like they had been in a fight with a vicious pack of dogs, he could see bites even on the TV on their arms and legs. He knew these people would put a major strain on the already overburden medical system. While he was having these thoughts a police radio broadcast came over the air reporting something about a few attacks at the local hospitals. He sighed and went to his desk President Harper was expected to call any minute with Washington's strategy for dealing with this mess he looked out the window and saw what looked to be smoke coming from a building, he decided it was probably a cloud he then sat down and waited for the president to call.

**February 25th 2008 Tokyo Times headline**

Riots in Hong Kong claim 45 lives: Chinese government blames anarchists and pro democracy advocates.

**February 25th 2008 Washington DC White House**

President Harper was on the verge of emotional and physical collapse. Two weeks ago things had been rosy as far as American politics went, the economy had been booming, and the people were fat happy and content with their lives. Now the country was turning into a god dam war zone, rescue, National Guard, and regular army units were stretched to their absolute limits, even after withdrawing troops from Iraq and Korea. He remembered warning that crazy SOB in the north, that if he even though about invading the south he would give their country the ultimate nuclear enema, so far he had been a good boy probably because China there handler, were experiencing their own problems. The news stations were dead wrong about the casualties in Hong Kong. The Chinese were feeding them disinformation, and they bought it hook, line, and sinker it was more like thousands were dead, or rather zombies, and thousands more were expected to turn.

So far he had managed to keep a lid on what was truly happening not that he was secretive by nature but to have the public know that the Dead were rising would cause panic and chaos on a biblical scale. However it was only a matter of time before the truth came out, already some people in the media had made some very good guesses. However, a visit from homeland security and a speech about responsible reporting had usually persuaded them to keep the lid on the story. Those who were more persistent were now guest of various detainment facilities throughout the country. The situation was worsening by the hour, unemployment was up to twenty percent, and the economy was doing a free fall in general. This was on top of the dollar losing thirty percent of its value the only thing that prevented this from being a complete disaster for the United States, was that the rest of the world's economies were crashing too. He looked outside the window and saw that the protesters were back, stupid fools he thought the nation is going down in flames and all they can think about is there freedom to be assholes. At least the court challenges were going nowhere, the justice department, the leaders of both sides of congress, as well as the Supreme Court, understood the gravity of the situation and had agreed to give the government whatever it needed to stop these things. President Harper sat down for what seemed like the hundredth time that day and reviewed the deteriorating situation in what was once the heartland.

**February 25th 2008 Fox News**

Fox news has unconfirmed reports that the army battalion guarding the city of Rochester Minnesota was overrun by an army of rioters following the last refugees out of the ruins of the twin cities. It is not known at this time how many are dead but unconfirmed sources have said the battalion was wiped out to the man and woman. Rochester is best known for being the home of the Mayo Clinic. This comes on top of news of major disturbances in the following area Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Mason, and Waterloo in Iowa, Saint Cloud in Minnesota, as well as La Cross and Madison Wisconsin.

**February 26th 2008 Headline's from around the world**

A Ten Mile Radius around the Twin Cities Confirmed to be Under Complete Control of Rioters: Two Million Dead Worldwide.

Des Moines Hit by Riots Governor orders troops to shoot to Kill

Major fighting now within one mile of central Paris: The Louvre's artwork to be evacuated by French Government.

Hong Kong Riots enter third Day 325 Confirmed Dead, Thousands Wounded.

Rumors abound about causes of the riots: Theories include Chemical or Biological weapons, to the Dead Rising and Attacking the Living

Governor of Minnesota Commits Suicide: Despondent over of Loss of twin cities.

Mexican Army fights pitched battle five miles south of Mexico City are forced to retreat.

\**February 26th 2008 30 miles west of Deer Lake Montana**

Frank and Jim had made it with their families to the cabin located in the middle of a dense forest the nearest town was Deer Lake which was thirty miles away. While the nearest large city was seventy miles to the north west, both felt that if this plague came this far west that these creatures would have little chance of making it that far out of the city. Still they would have to be careful and erect a wall of some sorts around the cabin, also they would have to fortify the windows and doors on the lower floor while there was no television electricity or radio they did have a powerful CB transmitter which confirmed there decision to leave the twin cities and the surrounding areas had been overrun by what the fools were still calling rioters by they knew better they knew the twin cities belonged to the dead.

**February 27th 2008 Des Moines Iowa**

Governor Charles Hill circled in a helicopter over downtown Des Moines he knew in heart the city was lost even though the police and National Guard were still fighting in the downtown district. Des Moines was mostly intact despite the violence of the past three days, the rioters or the living dead at least if you believed Washington which he did had spread there disease like wild fire. The infected had been amongst the refugees, only a hundred or so but enough when they died they had turned and began attacking other refugees. The result was a chain reaction which caused thousands to become infected in a matter of hours. The dead had flooded out of the hospitals and stadiums and had proceeded to infect thousands more. At the rate the infection was going the city, had maybe twenty four to forty eight hours until it fell to the dead, almost one million people had become zombies and that was a conservative estimate. The United States plague zone extended from fifty miles north of Duluth extending in more or less diagonal direction down to Saint Cloud, it then went south extending down to about 10 miles west of Des Moines, it then went east fifty miles south of Des Moines to the Mississippi River were the Plague had been temporarily stopped by blowing up the bridges. The line went north until La Clare were it then went into Wisconsin extending from Madison in the east to Lake Superior in the north. In all a portion of a better part of three states were now infected with the Thanatos virus containing half a dozen major cities. Governor Hill, when he thought about this wanted to puke, however, he knew he had a job to do he told the pilot take the helicopter to Council Bluffs and tell the legislator to assemble there at least those who are left we are going to have to make a hard choice.

**February 27th 2007 New York Times**

New York City police have reported a series of grisly murders involving homeless people who have been attacked and in some cases partially devoured. In many cases all that was found was blood and a few scattered body parts this news adds to the since of nervousness that New Yorkers are feeling due the major rioting taking place in the Midwest. Police are speculating that this may be part of some satanic ritual or gang activity. Similar murders have been reported in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix, Portland, and Los Angeles.


End file.
